The present invention relates to conveyors, and in particular to a latching assembly for automatically securing an object to a conveyor assembly, and further for automatically releasing the object therefrom.
In the automobile industry, overhead conveyors are frequently utilized to transport a portion of a vehicle frame or body through an assembly plant. Generally, the vehicle frame rests upon a portion of a conveyor carrier, held thereon only by gravity.
In many assembly or maintenance plants, a step of dipping the vehicle body or frame into a treatment solution is involved. These treatment baths can have various purposes including cleaning or other treatment of the vehicle. During these treatment baths, the conveyor usually transports the vehicle body directly into the bath, entirely submerging it.
If the vehicle body is not secured to the conveyor carrier during this dipping process, problems can arise. Generally, as the vehicle body is being submerged air pockets therein may cause it to float and, if it is not adequately secured to the conveyor carrier, it may float away from the carrier and either be damaged, or significantly inhibit the conveyor system from operating smoothly.
Tie-down or anchoring systems for securing the vehicle body to the conveyor carrier, during the treatment bath, have been developed. Generally, they involve a complex latching system which must be manually operated to engage the vehicle and thus secure it to the conveyor carrier. Following treatment by dipping, these latching systems must again be manually operated to disengage the vehicle so that it will no longer be anchored to the carrier and can be removed therefrom.
The industry has generally lacked an automatic latching assembly which can be utilized to secure a vehicle body to a conveyor carrier, prior to dipping, and further, which automatically releases from engagement with the vehicle body, after the treatment bath. With such an assembly, selective latching and unlatching are accomplished at selected postions in the maintenance or assembly plant, without the expense of additional operators and with generally increased efficiency of operation. An important feature of such device or assembly is that it be relatively simple in construction so that it will remain relatively unaffected by the treatment baths and will be generally free from jamming during operation.